In the Basement of Lucius Malfoy
by eMu3
Summary: This story features redeemable Draco conversing with Lupin whilst he's imprisoned by the Death Eaters. May squick...slight possibility


Title: In the Basement of Lucius Malfoy  
  
Author: eMu  
  
Summary: Lupin gets caught by death eaters and imprisoned in Malfoy Manner. And no, it's not like every other fan fic you've ever read with that premise.  
  
Disclaimers: JK owns 'em, I just help her abuse 'em occasionally.  
  
Author's Notes: This fic is dedicated to Dragon's Eye. It's written with her idea of a redeemable Draco in mind… mutilated, but in mind.  
  
It was cold. And altogether spinning too much.   
  
Remus Lupin sat up, then, realizing that required far too much balance for his present state, slumped right back to the cold floor he'd been contemplating a moment ago with a dull thud. Grimacing, he opened his eyes, but it was all dark.   
  
His mouth tasted like blood. He could feel a large cut on his lip, probably ran down at least halfway to his chin. He knew he was probably bruised too, although his body was pleasantly numb at the moment so he couldn't be sure. Even if they get a good stun on you, the Death Eaters are rather fond of mishandling their captives.  
  
Remus tried to get his mind to focus, analyse the situation. Possibly see if there was some way for him to get out of wherever he was. Know where he was. But it required too much effort and he was grateful to sink into unconsciousness.  
  
  
  
*****************************************  
  
Summer holidays had always been a miserable experience for Draco. Despite his blatant criticisms of the school, he'd grown rather fond of Hogwarts, where he had some measure of control over his life. Funny. He got more control at a boarding school than he did in his own home.  
  
If he hadn't been feeling so restless in his almost cavernous and achingly lonely bedroom, he may have missed the action. But instead he was sitting in the library attempting to read a book, although he was really having a staring contest with it, when he heard a bit of a scuffle through the open door. He creeped over and peered into the hallway.  
  
"Blimey! It's still awake!"  
  
"Of course it is you moron, bash him over the head!"  
  
"With what Charlie?"   
  
Draco watched with amusement as the two seasoned, muscled yet brain dead "thugs" of his father's attempted to subdue a shabbily dressed pauper who looked as though he weighed little more than Draco himself. He was putting up a good fight though.  
  
The former captive managed to break away completely from his captors and started running in the opposite direction. Draco squinted down the hallway, saw him turn left. Like he was heading for the gardens. The hired men ran after him, and Draco pursued noiselessly.  
  
This was far from the only occurrence of this sort that summer. Voldemort was attempting to regain his power, and as one of the more notable of the sane Death Eaters, Lucius had been using Malfoy Manor for whatever purposes the dark lord demanded, least unusual holding onto potential information sources or "examples".  
  
Through some trick of sound, possibly by throwing a stray object, the two men turned right instead of left, leaving Draco to pursue the escaped captive. Sliding his wand out of his pocket, he stealthily followed his target, using all the tricks for this sort of thing Lucius had been showing him.  
  
He was indeed heading outside, which gave Draco the uneasy idea the man had been to Malfoy Manor before. Brushing the thought aside, he continued stalking his opponent.   
  
'He knows I'm here'. Draco realized suddenly. He was still trying to cover his moves. 'Well if he knows he's being pursued…'  
  
Draco waited until he got a clear sight of him and raised his wand. Finding himself backed into a corner, the man turned around, and smiled sadly at Draco. Draco flinched.  
  
"Professor Lupin?"  
  
"And thank you for retrieving him so well for us Draco. Perhaps your mother is right, you may be a bit more decent as common help than an heir. Stun him." Lucius ordered, appearing as if from the air itself.  
  
Lupin seemed to relax before the two. He rested his hands at his sides and waited with a patient look for the curse.  
  
There just seemed something…wrong about it. But being very aware of the spectre of evil standing beside him, Draco pushed his internal conflicts aside for later examination and raised his wand.   
  
"Stupefy."  
  
*************************************************  
  
Another late night tryst in the library. Really, sleeping in a luxurious mansion ought to have been easy. But Draco was disturbed by his hesitation to stun Lupin. It's not like it was a professor he'd even liked that much. If he'd had to stun Snape, well that would have been understandable. But Lupin.   
  
Still, something wasn't sitting right with him about the whole mess. He knew Lupin was being kept alive, and he didn't like that. Why bother keeping him alive? He wasn't a good bargaining chip of any kind. And what kind of information could he possibly have? Sure, Dumbledore trusted him, but he also knew better than to let too many people know too much.  
  
"Go to the source. Figure this out. Because the next time you're slow to act it could end in something unpleasant for you." Draco murmured, his hand moving to a thin white line on his forearm, the only noticeable mark from Lucius' "discipline" for acting too slowly.  
  
Considering where all the random strangers in his house had been coming and going from lately, Draco assumed Voldemort's business was being done in the bowels of the manor. Once he got to the stairs leading to the underground part, he shuddered. It was cold, yes, but there was also something unpleasant emanating from that part of the house. He'd never been there before. Narcissa didn't like him seeing Lucius' work.  
  
With stubborn determination, he walked down the stairs and squinted in darkness. There weren't any guards, maybe he was mistaken. Or maybe Lucius was really as foolishly arrogant as rumour said.  
  
It just looked, black. Down there. It looked like nothingness. He couldn't tell if his eyes were open or not. Reaching out his hands, he blindly groped along the wall so he wouldn't fall down the stairs, waiting for his eyes to adjust.  
  
After a few minutes, he could make out objects as a lighter sort of black. There weren't windows and there weren't lights. He wondered if the darkness and solitude were a version of torture. If they weren't, then it was just an added bonus it worked like that.  
  
He listened carefully, trying to discern if there really was anyone being kept down there. He finally heard some ragged breathing. Tiptoeing, he made it downstairs with little to no noise.  
  
Squinting, he made out the details of the basement. 'Some kids have more reasons than others to fear the basements of their homes, I suppose.' The room was obviously the same size as the manor, so it was huge, stretching almost out of sight. Along the walls were cells, some simply barred off, some walled off. There weren't really any more distinguishable features to the place. The floor was dirt, the wall was stone. There weren't any windows. Here and there a chair or stool was placed, also the stray torture instrument usually kept, in assumption anyway, in one of the walled off cells. There was a table near the stairwell, and on it were some candles and a pack of matches.  
  
Draco wanted desperately to light one of the candles and have a better look, but his desire was to observe without being seen himself, and so he ignored the thoughts of comfort a little more light could bring.   
  
He began walking down the aisle, looking into the cells. Some had bodies, some didn't. It was hard to tell which bodies were alive, and if any of them were the one he was looking for.  
  
He'd been down there for at least a half hour and inspected seven bodies from his careful distance in the aisle before he seemed to run out of bodies. He kept walking, listening for the sounds of the living.   
  
He passed yet more empty cells. 'What would possess a man to build something like this in his house? Exactly how much of this room does Lucius use regularly?' Maybe this was why Voldemort was so quick to forgive Lucius for denouncing his name for 14 years. Couldn't be easy to find another ally with their own personal catacomb of torture.  
  
He finally heard the muffled sound of moving, and slow, laborious breath. Quickening his pace a little, Draco walked until he reached the cell he'd heard movement in. It was one of the barred cells. He leaned his back against the cell opposite the one the person was in, standing in the occupant's blind spot, observing him.  
  
He was the right build and height to be Lupin. He couldn't really distinguish anything else, it was too dark. The man was still alive, as was obvious by the harsh and irregular breathing. He was laying on his side, his gaze lowered.   
  
Slowly, he raised his head, sniffed, his gaze moving until it came as close to Draco's spot as possible.  
  
"Odd hour for you to be down here, isn't it?" The man who was unmistakably Lupin asked, in a surprisingly strong voice.  
  
A knot formed in Draco's stomach. He'd forgotten the werewolf would have stronger senses, be able to smell him there. He wondered briefly if Lupin could smell his fear.  
  
"So what are you doing down here?" Lupin asked in a conversational manner.   
  
"Why do you care?" Draco answered quickly.  
  
"Excuse me for wanting to make a little conversation. It gets very dull down here." Lupin answered, sitting up slowly. He leaned against the bars for support.  
  
"Does it?" Draco asked.  
  
"Mmm. It's the opening of your father's interrogation system. Solitary confinement for just long enough for one to forget how much time has passed, softens the prisoner a little. Then they're taken to one of those closed off rooms over there. There's some interesting instruments in there. Then death. Sometimes he doesn't even ask questions." Lupin explained casually.  
  
"You sound like you've been here before." Draco noted.  
  
"I have. Albus and a few of my friends got me out before he could do anything serious. I'm not sure if I can expect the same sort of rescue this time though."  
  
"And that doesn't bother you?" Draco asked.  
  
"No, not really."  
  
There was a moment of silence. "Well I have better things to be doing right now, like sleeping. And I've no interest in being caught in this place and punish. Right, so I'll be leaving now. Enjoy your days professor."  
  
"Good night Mr. Malfoy." Lupin replied. He waited a moment. "I thought you were going someplace."  
  
"I can't!" Draco hissed. "And not so loud, I don't want to be caught here." He sat down opposite Lupin, only the bars and a few inches separating them.  
  
"So?"  
  
"Okay, I haven't been able to sleep for awhile, and then…I don't know. For some reason it's bugging me that you're down here, and I don't know why. So I came down here to try to figure it out." Draco seemed to be more talking to himself than the Lupin. "I didn't even really like you as a teacher or anything."  
  
"I got that impression."   
  
"Although I don't really know why."  
  
"Well you seemed to get enough amusement making jokes about my poverty. Was that it?"  
  
"No, that was for my image." Draco said dismissively. He paused, realizing he'd finally said it out loud. That made it seem all the more real. "For my image…"  
  
"What image were you going for?" Lupin asked.   
  
"I…I don't know. Um…well why should I have to explain myself to you? You're just some stupid muggle loving filthy monster! I'm not wasting my time anymore! Why should it have anything to do with you?" Draco got up to leave. He turned around. "And it's NOT guilt. I don't feel any guilt at all for turning you in to Lucius."  
  
"Don't you mean father? Or dad?"  
  
"That's what I said." Draco stormed off.  
  
**************************************************  
  
"I don't like him." Draco said to his empty room. He was laying upside down on his bed, staring at the ceiling. Light was slowly creeping into his bedroom as the sun rose, giving the trinkets inside an eerie sort of look in the half-light.  
  
He rolled onto his stomach and started playing with a loose piece of thread in his blanket. "Dad…calling Lucius dad…I haven't called him that since I was five."  
  
Easy for him to criticize in that calm and easy manner. Like it was nothing to dissect the life of another, rather, probe into it and extract painful details.  
  
So calm while he was trapped in some hideous basement to spend his last days in a weakened state with little to no hope of rescue, and only a confused teenager to talk to. It was almost admirable, how stoic he'd been acting.  
  
It certainly was fascinating. The man was just that, fascinating. And he'd had trouble sleeping before Lupin showed up. No reason to think the two were related. And there was no guilt there. Nope, no guilt.  
  
He would've gotten caught anyway. It's Malfoy Manor. Everyone gets caught. Draco knew from experience how hard it was to hide from Lucius Malfoy in his own home.   
  
  
  
************************************************  
  
"Here again?"  
  
"Shut up." Draco sat down across from Lupin again. He'd brought one of the candles with him this time, and he was starting to wish he hadn't.  
  
It had been three days.  
  
"Lucius has been down here, hasn't he?" Draco asked, his eyes fixed on a horrible gash starting above Lupin's eyebrow and trailing down at a slant to hook behind his ear.  
  
"Not in person, no. But he sent his regards." Lupin answered with a calm smile.   
  
"Are they feeding you?" Draco asked.  
  
"Not regularly."  
  
"And you're…okay with this?"   
  
"I haven't really got a lot of options open to me. Besides, there's nothing more annoying than a compliant prisoner. Your father enjoys interrogating and torturing prisoners, that's one reason why all this is here and why he's working for Voldemort in this first place."   
  
"Mmm…I never thought Voldemort's political ideologies suited Lucius. Although I don't think he really cares just so long as he has money and power. You went to school with Lucius, right?" Draco asked. Lupin nodded. "Was he ever a decent person?"  
  
"I didn't really know him very well. I remember him being condescending, and his sense of humour was downright cruel. But he never seemed like the type to physically hurt someone."  
  
"How was he cruel? What did he do?" Draco asked. He'd always been curious about his father's background, but talking to Lucius about things like that just weren't an option. Their relationship really sucked. Lucius mentally abused Draco and made up for it by doing things like buying his way onto the Slytherin Quidditch team, even though he really could have cared less about being a seeker.  
  
"Well…well some of the things I observed you doing while I was at Hogwarts. He liked to pick on the other students. He was good at it too. Some of the things he said… We spent many a night consoling Peter after a vicious attack on his libido and sexual preference were made by your father to impress his little following."  
  
"Well I've never said things like, like that." Draco said with a frown. "I don't like being compared to him."  
  
"I didn't expect this."  
  
"What?"  
  
"This loathing of your father. You've always seemed rather fond of him."  
  
"Yeah, in public. He buys me expensive things and I get to use his name to scare people into compliance. Those are about the only good things I get out of being his son. Besides, I think most of that all stems to control issues, or lack thereof, and I've been working through all this shit in my head for awhile now."  
  
"Control issues?"  
"Well, like the incident with the hippogriff. I couldn't really have cared one way or another if the thing died. I just liked having the control over what happened to it. Because I don't get the same control over my life. Everything's been mapped out for me. I had to go to Hogwarts, I had to be in Slytherin, I have to get good grades, I have to be a Quidditch player. I have to flirt with Pansy Parkinson even though she's one of the ugliest things I've ever seen, because Lucius will approve of her. And I'm going to end up as a death eater and mini-clone of Lucius sooner or later. There really aren't any decisions I can make in my own life."  
  
"Maybe it's not a matter of control, more a matter of being controlled. I'm sure you could make changes. It just involves more risk than you seem willing to take, and you'd have to sacrifice this comfortable position you have with everyone taking care of you. Nothing bad can really touch you if your father handles everything."  
  
"Nothing bad can really touch me, except my father." Draco snapped. "You think I get grounded when I do things wrong? You think it's unpleasant being down here? Try living with him. When he gets into a bad mood, he finds me. I've been cursed so many times I've rather gotten used to the cruciatus curse. Don't make assumptions."  
  
"I'm sorry." Lupin answered.   
  
"What's your real name anyway? I suppose I don't have to call you professor Lupin anymore."  
  
"My name is Remus."  
  
"Okay Remus. How do you stay so calm all of the time? I've been trying to master that for the longest time."  
  
"Comes with age, mostly." Remus answered. "The rest is from some meditation techniques I learned when I was younger."  
  
"So if you're upset with someone, you'll start meditating?" Draco asked in disbelief.  
  
"Not quite. My moods are mostly dominated by the stage of the moon, and the closer it comes to full the more agitated I get. When I first started going to Hogwarts, I noticed that I was never going to pass as normal if I couldn't control my anger the three days before the full moon. So I found some books on eastern philosophy and studied."  
  
"Maybe I'll look into that." Draco mused. "That must be helpful in a situation like this, having that much control over your mind."  
  
"It is. I can choose to focus on pain and hunger or to dismiss them. It's rather nifty, although it keeps me from being able to gauge the seriousness of an injury."  
  
"Yeah." There was a comfortably silence while Draco thought over the possibilities of meditation. "Do you believe in God?"  
"That was rather abrupt." Remus answered.  
  
"Well do you?"  
  
"Sort of."  
  
"Explain."  
  
Remus smiled. "I think the concept of a deity is…less than plausible. And if the deity does exist, I doubt it would have a gender. Therefore, I don't like the terms Goddess and God. I like the idea of there being more of an omnipresent energy force. Something that creates and maintains life, but agrees with science because I see a lot more facts and research in that than in the major religions."  
  
"Oh. I've been doubting most of this Christianity crap that's being pushed on me lately. I like the way you said that though. I asked Lucius if he actually bought into religion. I mean, how devout a Christian can he be if he kills people regularly? But he's pretty firm in his beliefs, even if he can't tell me anything about them. I think it's one of those image things."  
  
"That's entirely possible."  
  
"I'm also starting to think I might just be part of his image…like he doesn't really want me to be here. He just needed to have a kid because that's what you do. I don't think he loves my mother either, and I'm not sure how she feels about anything. I just know she likes being rich. And I think she pities me." Draco said quietly.  
  
"Well I figured one mystery out." Remus said. Draco looked up. "Your need to see me and talk to me had little to do with guilt or whether you like me as a person. You just need someone to talk to. And I am a very good person for that, as it won't really matter what you tell me because I'm going to be dead in a week, the most. Correct?"  
"Sounds right. You don't mind being my outlet, right?" Draco asked.  
  
"Not at all. Gives me something to do with my nights."  
  
"Shit! How long have I been down here? Oh shit, I should leave! See you later Remus!"   
  
"Bye Draco."  
  
**************************************************  
  
'How can anyone be that pleasant and content?'   
  
Remus was sitting in the back corner of his cell, his back resting against the wall. His eyes were closed and a content smile graced his lips. His breathing was even, but he didn't seem to be sleeping.  
  
Draco took the opportunity to observe him. The cut on his face looked possibly worse. It was probably getting infected. He was overall very dirty, one could assume from sleeping on the dirt floor. He was thin and pale, but it didn't look like a result of his captivity. He was just a thin, pale person in general. It suited him. He had a very delicate build. A layer of stubble had appeared on his face. His hair was longish, with greys stuck here and there in the sickly mouse coloured brown strands. But he wasn't ugly.  
  
On the contrary. He was a fairly attractive man. Seemed his body had just gotten used to being battered, and decided to find its own way to make that an attractive thing.  
  
"I brought some food." Draco said, breaking Remus out of his trance.  
  
"You didn't have to do that."  
  
"Well…I figured you could use it." He slid the container of all manner of scraps from his supper to Remus, who ate it quickly and hungrily.  
  
"Thank you. I was beginning to forget what real food tastes like."  
  
"I've been thinking a lot about what you said the other night…about choices and all that. And that I was too scared to take the risks. Well, I want to take the risks. I'm just not sure what I can do. I mean, I'd like to get out of this house and I'd like to hurt the death eaters and Voldemort. I really don't want them to win this war. They're a bunch of crack pots and lunatics, and they're the worst manner of people. I really don't like the idea of them ruling over anyone else. I just don't know what to do." Draco murmured.  
  
He waited to see the impact those words would have on Remus. He continued to sit, stoic and silent, his eyes now closed again, considering. Finally, he said, "I didn't expect that."  
  
Draco waited for more, but Remus seemed to be done. He felt a frustrated knot form somewhere in his stomach. He wanted advice on what he should do, and here he'd risked his father's wrath even bringing food to the creature, and that's all he could say?  
  
"However, if you really do want to get involved, it's very simple. Just contact Dumbledore. I'm sure he can come up with something for you to do that wouldn't even put you at too much risk. He's a brilliant man." Remus finished.  
  
Draco felt the anger dissipate. Of course. Go to Dumbledore. Seemed rather obvious in retrospect. But there were still problems with that…  
  
"Would he believe me? I haven't exactly proven myself as someone who…"  
  
"Isn't a vicious little shit?" Remus suggested. Draco scowled.  
  
"Not that exactly. Well, yeah, I guess."  
  
Remus smiled. "Albus believes in the good in all people, I'm sure if you explained yourself properly, he'd believe you."  
  
*****************************************************************************  
  
There was a stabbing pain in his head, the cut must be getting worse. Remus was having difficulties meditating it away. The imprisonment was starting to take its toll, he was feeling very weak.  
  
He sighed, wondering how much longer he had before he was killed. It really was a depressing situation, not that he minded death really. At many points in his life, he'd looked forward to it. He just had too many loose ends to tie up.  
  
He heard footsteps. He focused around the pain and listened more closely, then exhaled in irritation. It wasn't Draco.  
  
*****************************************************************************  
  
Draco looked down the hallway, and once he'd assured himself that no one was around, he opened the door to Lucius' study and slipped inside.   
  
He'd decided if he was going to go to Dumbledore, he'd like to have more information to give him then 'My father is in fact a death eater'. That was a little obvious.  
  
He rifled through the parchment on Lucius' desk, looking for something interesting. Although he figured if Lucius had any important information written down, he wouldn't leave it lying unattended on his desk.  
  
Draco started opening drawers and sifting through folders. He paused when he found a list of the victims in the basement. There were red lines through all the ones that had died, and dates were written next to each name. He figured the date was when he planned to kill each person. 'Yep, the ones with the red lines are all dates in the past'. He scanned the list, then dropped it.  
  
Remus had one week.  
  
*****************************************************************************  
  
'Okay, calm down, you knew he was going to bite it, he's here as a prisoner, not as a guest for you to talk to. So calm down.' Draco repeated to himself, pacing his bedroom.  
  
He didn't like the prospect of losing his new confidant so quickly. 'That's all it is. After Remus dies, I'm alone here again'. Draco thought angrily. Then he kicked the wall.   
  
He was not getting attached to and concerned about the werewolf. He was not.  
  
*****************************************************************************  
  
"Lucius is going to kill you next week." Draco said flatly.  
  
Remus opened his eyes and looked at Draco. "Oh." He said softly, then closed his eyes again. It was the first time Draco had seem him look, well, sad.  
  
"What? No snappy little response about how there's no need to worry about death?" Draco snapped.  
  
"I'm not afraid to die." Remus said slowly. "I just…I'd rather not if it can be avoided."  
  
Draco inhaled deeply a few times, then pushed some hair out of his face. He felt so frustrated, and useless.  
  
"Draco, you knew I was going to die." Remus said calmly. "Look where I am."  
  
"I know, I know okay? I just…it's not right! You're ten times a better person than either of my parents, but they get to live happily with their loads of money. And you have to die in this miserable place!" Draco yelled, kicking a wall.  
  
"Draco…control yourself. Bringing Lucius down here to investigate won't help anything." Remus whispered. He sounded so weak, so frail. Draco felt a fresh stab of anger. But he listened to Remus.  
  
He sat down facing Remus, leaning his head against the cool bars. Then he noticed something about them. "Remus…these bars, they aren't…?"  
"Silver?" Remus asked.  
  
"Um-"  
  
"Yes, they are. Lucius transfigured them when I got here." Remus explained.  
  
"But isn't that…you know, deadly? For werewolves?"  
  
"That's the idea. And just being near it makes us ill. Lucius is very thorough when it comes to torture." Remus said, as usual, eerily calm considering.  
  
Draco peered through the bars and tried to get a good look at Remus. And he started. He'd somehow managed to get even thinner. And the cut was worse. But there were new injuries.   
  
His leg was obviously broken, it was lying at an unnatural angle. Dried blood was clinging to the side of his abdomen, he'd obviously suffered a deep cut. And there were burns in various places on his body.  
  
"Where did those, those burns come from?" Draco asked, almost positive he didn't want to know.  
  
"I was thrown into those bars you so astutely noted." Remus answered.  
  
Draco swallowed uncomfortably. "But you still don't want to die?"  
  
"No…I'd live like this for years, if I got a chance to…" His voice trailed off. Remus looked absolutely miserable, and Draco regretted bringing it up. But he also couldn't stop his curiosity.  
  
"Got a chance to what?"  
  
"I have some loose ends to tie with Sirius Black. I'm sure by now you're aware that he's on our side." Remus said. Draco nodded. He'd figured that out when Wormtail had starting making appearances at the manor.   
  
"I heard you two were friends."  
  
Remus smiled, but it was a sad sort of smile. "We're friends now. We used to be lovers. And…well, I haven't really done anything to resolve the tension that's come up whenever we speak to each other. We've been so busy, we've never, never straightened out our feelings. I'd like a chance to tell him I still care about him. That's all."  
  
Draco grasped at the only thing that made sense to him. "You're gay?"  
  
Remus actually laughed. "Yes. Is that a problem?"  
  
Draco considered. "I suppose it's none of my business really. It's just…I've never met a gay person before."  
  
"I'm sure you have. You probably haven't noticed."   
  
"Yeah. I just got the impression I'd be able to tell. I mean, aren't you supposed to lisp or something?" Draco asked. Remus laughed again. "Stop that."  
  
"I'm sorry. It's just, Draco that's just a stereotype. It's not necessarily true." Remus smiled. "It's cute."  
  
"Don't call me cute." Draco muttered, feeling a blush coming on. "How am I supposed to know any of this? I never even got the birds and the bees talk, let alone one on homosexuality."  
  
"…So you don't know-"  
  
"I know all about sex, thanks. I am fifteen. I just didn't learn from my parents." Draco explained.   
  
There was a surprisingly comfortable silence, before Draco said, "If you don't live, I'll find Sirius and tell him."  
  
*****************************************************************************  
  
"Tell us what we want to know Lupin, and we might spare you." The cold, drawling voice of Lucius Malfoy filled the room, commanding the attention of all present.  
  
Remus laid where he was, his usual calm façade on. "Thanks, I'd rather not." He answered simply.  
  
Lucius paced the floor in front of Remus, a sick smile twisted on his face. "Fine then."  
  
"Oh Lucius, just curse him already!" Narcissa snapped irritably from where she stood. "I hate having that creature in my house."  
  
"But Narcissa, if I curse him I won't get to hear him scream." Lucius said casually, twirling a silver dagger in his hand.  
  
Draco woke up screaming.  
  
He fell out of bed and looked around his room. He went to a calendar and checked. Remus still had five days left. He stared at the calendar until he calmed himself down.  
  
It was just a dream. He closed his eyes and focused on his breathing for a few minutes.  
  
The problem with that rational was, in a few days it would be a reality.  
  
'This is stupid! I need to do something!' Draco thought angrily. He threw some useless trinket he'd picked up on his desk at the wall. His owl was staring at him like he was mad.  
  
His owl…  
  
Draco grabbed some parchment and a quill and began scribbling furiously.  
  
*****************************************************************************  
  
"Why don't they try and rescue you?"  
Remus was laying on his back, staring at the ceiling. He looked worse than ever, but thankfully, there were no new injuries. "I don't know Draco."  
  
Draco paced back and forth. "They know you're here, right?"  
  
"They should've been able to figure it out." A smile twisted Remus' lips. "I can almost guarantee you Sirius is going crazy wanting to save me. But the others are more cautious about letting the wanted man run around."   
  
Draco chewed his lip. "How can you be so happy? You only have four days left."  
  
"I'm not happy, I'm accepting. And getting all worried and paranoid won't help me any. Quite the opposite, I'd expect."  
  
"I've never met anyone as rational and logical as you. It's almost scary. It's like you're not even a person because there's no…well there's no emotion." Draco said, resuming his old position of sitting by the bars.  
  
"I assure you Draco, I show plenty of emotion when I'm not in captivity."  
  
"Like love?" Draco asked.  
  
"Yes. There's that." Remus whispered, the frown returning to his face.   
  
"What's it like?" Draco asked.   
  
"Being in love? It hurts, more than anything." Remus answered. "I mean, it's wonderful when you can spend time with the person and know that you're both safe…but when you're in danger, and when they're in danger, it just hurts."  
  
"How can you tell when you're in love?" Draco asked. Remus was about to explain, but he went silent. Draco frowned, and listened closely. He couldn't hear anything. He was about to ask what was going on, when Remus cut him off with a harsh whisper.  
  
"There's someone coming. Get back to your bedroom. And be silent."  
  
Draco's eyes widened. He ran as silently as possible through the darkened basement. He couldn't go the way he'd been coming, they were coming from over there. So he had to find a new way to the upper levels of the house.  
  
He ran for about twenty minutes before he had to stop and catch his breath.  
  
The problem was, he'd made some erratic turns to make pursuit more difficult if anyone happened to be following him, and now he had no idea where he was.  
  
He looked around. There were still cells around him, but the occupants were half dead, at the best. He shivered, and rubbed his arms furiously, trying to suppress the trembling he knew had nothing to do with the temperature.  
  
He took a few cautious steps around, but it looked like the only way to go was into pure darkness. 'Well, it's better than being able to see into these cells, I suppose.' Draco decided. He walked forward, hand on his wand.  
  
He walked in the absolute darkness, feeling more scared than he'd ever remembered feeling. He walked into a wall and scared himself stupid thinking someone had tried to grab him.  
  
There was a crack of light ahead. A window! He could climb out the window and then go around to a door and get back into his room that way! Draco ran towards the window, feeling very relieved-until he collided with something very solid.  
  
"AAAA-" A hand was clamped over his mouth.  
  
"Ssh, shut up, you wanna get us caught?" A hoarse voice whispered in his ear.  
  
"Don't be an idiot Black, he doesn't know you. Draco, calm down." A very familiar voice said, somewhere to his left.  
  
Draco stopped struggling and stared, wide eyed. Professor Snape was standing by the open window, looking around warily with his wand out. And the person holding him had to be Sirius Black.  
  
Black let him go and he backed away a few paces. "So…Dumbledore got my owl then?" Draco asked, hating how small and helpless his voice sounded.  
  
"It wasn't a trick then. That's good to know." Snape said a bit harshly, glaring at Black.  
  
"Excuse me for being cautious." Black snapped.  
  
"You're never cautious. Draco, can you show us where he is?" Snape asked, a bit more kindly.  
  
"I-I was just there, but someone was c-coming so I had to leave." Draco said quickly. "I don't know if they're gone yet and I just ran around blindly and I don't know where I am right now."  
  
"Great. Just fucking peachy." Black growled.  
  
Snape rolled his eyes, but Draco got the feeling it was at Black's reaction and not at his seeming stupidity. Draco got the feeling Snape and Black didn't get along.  
  
"Can you retrace your steps?" Snape asked.  
  
"I can try." Draco offered.  
  
"How do you get lost in your own house?" Black asked.  
  
"The manor is gigantic and I've never been this far into the basement before." Draco said defensively.  
  
Black considered. "Well I can't say I blame you."  
  
*****************************************************************************  
  
  
  
Twenty minutes later they were still far from familiar territory, and Black was getting antsy. All three had their wands out, ready to stun anyone they met. Draco felt like crying in frustration. He was so close to being able to actually accomplish something worth doing, and he had managed to muck it up.  
  
"Maybe we should just find a window and go around from the outside." Snape suggested.  
  
"Good luck finding another window." Black shot down.  
  
Draco continued onward, ignoring their seemingly constant bickering. Or trying to. Their arguments were grating his nerves. "Do you want to get caught? Shut up already."  
  
Black looked like he was about to say something rude. But Snape cut him off. "He's right. Just shut up."  
  
Draco turned down another narrow line of cells, and emerged onto the main hallway he'd run down, the one with Remus' cell somewhere along it. He smiled triumphantly. "We're close."  
  
He looked in the cells they were near. None of them looked familiar, so that meant they had to turn in the direction leading towards the exit. He started running, Black and Snape at his heels.  
  
Finally, he stopped at Remus' cell.  
  
Remus was lying in a corner, blood seeping onto the ground. They'd reopened the wound in his side. There were also more burns on his body. He was completely limp, and his breathing was harsh. Draco felt a surge of panic. 'No, we can't be too late'.  
  
Snape began work on opening the door to the cell, while Black paced behind him. As soon as the door was opened, Draco ran inside and crouched down next to Remus. He held Remus' head in his hands and bit back tears.  
  
"Remus, are you okay?" He whispered hoarsely.  
  
Remus' eyes flickered open. He gazed around the cell, then grimaced. He opened his eyes again and saw Black and Snape standing behind Draco.  
  
"Thank you." He whispered, hardly perceptible.   
  
"Say goodbye and make it fast, we need to get out of here quickly." Snape instructed. Black faced a wall, unable to keep his eyes on Remus' broken form.  
  
To this day, Draco had no idea what made him do it. But regardless of motivation (or lack thereof) Draco bent over and placed his lips over Remus' in a quick, chaste kiss that lasted less than a second. Then he helped Snape and Black carry him out of the cell and back in the direction of the window they'd snuck in through.  
  
Draco didn't start heading back to his bedroom until he watched the gigantic motorcycle disappear into the sky.  
  
EPILOGUE  
  
Draco stared at the Daily Prophet. He stared at the headlines confirming the return of Lord Voldemort, and the list of known death eaters. He smiled sadly. They'd missed quite a few.  
  
Somehow Lucius had kept his name off of it. He'd have a hard time claiming the Imperious Curse this time. Although his time in Azkaban was sure to be less than extended…Draco had overheard a conversation about who the Dementors really worked for.  
  
Draco placed the Prophet back on the coffee table and waited. He wanted to stick to his word. He wanted to do something to help the Order. He kept reminding himself of that as his insides seemed to vanish and be replaced with some squirmy creature knawing at his throat.  
  
"Mr. Malfoy, the Minister will see you now." A pleasant but frazzled looking secretary announced.  
  
Draco got up and walked into the office of Cornelius Fudge.  
  
"Yes Mr. Malfoy, what can I do for you?" Fudge asked. Draco suppressed a smile. He looked bloody frantic. He'd been eating a large helping of crow ever since Voldemort showed himself in the damned Ministry.  
  
"I have some information for you. Take out a quill, this may take some time."  
  



End file.
